Subject To Change
by telracs
Summary: Humans are more than just subjects to change. Teenagers are more than just finding who you are. But entering High School? That's enough to get a moth into the fire and to hell with attraction. AU Still undecided for pairing. But that's subject to change
1. Day 1

**Hm...So. I've been playing the game and reading fanfiction, which is basically spoiling everything for seeing as I DIDN'T finish it yet. However, I couldn't just walk away from the need to at least _attempt_ at writing one so...here goes. I'd like to know if anything about the characters is wrong, since...I'm not sure how to protray them. I tried my best. ^^ **

**Disclaimer: Don't own the game. _Ostensible. _**

* * *

"I'm looking for the boy with green hair and silver eyes," she said with a grin, bringing a hand to her mouth when she realized what she just said. "I mean, the boy with _silver_ hair and _green_ eyes."

Nora smiled, "Would that be…that one?" She pointed to a boy down the hall. "The one with the face?"

Vanille beamed, slapping her cheeks while trying not to smile. "I wonder what gave it away…"

The older woman tapped her chin thoughtfully, and Vanille looked at her carefully. A small smile graced her lips, and Vanille could see the imaginary light bulb glow above her head. "It was definitely the face."

The young girl giggled, this time squinting her eyes shut. When she opened them, she could see the boy making his way towards the open door. He was wearing navy blue slacks with a short-sleeved white button down shirt and tie. He didn't bother to tuck it in.

Vanille almost yelped.

"Hope!"

He smiled. "Hey! You ready to go?"

She nodded enthusiastically, almost frantic. Hope laughed. He loved Vanille happy. It was the immediate cause of their friendship—he needed the positivity. "Alright, let's go then."

"See ya, Nora!" Vanille waved as she walked off with a hop in her step. Nora smiled.

"Same as always, hm?" She looked at her son, who watched as the cherry-haired girl walked off. Hm. Not cherry. Maybe strawberry…

"And she'll never change." He turned to his mom, and pecked her cheek. "See ya later, ma!"

Nora waved, and Hope Estheim walked towards the sauntering girl with pent up excitement. Today was his first day of high school, Vanille's second year of attending, and their first year of going to high school together. Vanille hummed a familiar tone, Hope's excitement turned into nervousness, and the school was getting closer.

Or they were.

Either way, he wanted out.

_Veil_.

"Nervous?" Vanille asked when she saw him playing the straps of his book bag.

He tapped them repeatedly. "Eh…sort of."

She slapped the air, and Hope heard her suck her teeth. "There's not much to be nervous about."

"Yeah, but it's not like going from elementary to middle school." He groaned. High School was completely different from middle school; he knew that for a fact. Even if his only foretaste came from Vanille, which didn't seem all that bad coming from her. But of course, he had thought logically. Although most of her news was positive, isn't freshman year always positive? Most of the time?

Maybe for Vanille. But for Hope? Not so much. At least he didn't think so. People act a certain way to get others to like them, once the first year is gone, the second year comes and that person you thought you knew was completely someone else. They get too comfortable, act differently, and you might not like that. That's his theory. And Hope agrees to that.

Hope knows he doesn't like that.

_Definite._

She laughed, ending his spiraling thoughts. "You'll be fine, trust me. You have me, don't you?"

Hope shrugged. He felt a knot in his stomach. "I guess…"

Vanille made a noise that sounded like she was offended. "What do you mean, 'I guess'?"

An exasperated sigh. "You know what I mean, Baby V." He winked, earning a small laugh from her. It wasn't so hard to make Vanille laugh. Actually, it was pretty simple. She'd laugh, just so you won't feel bad.

"You'd better hope so, no pun intended." Vanille looked ahead, stopping abruptly. "Well, we're here."

"Wha-?" He looked in front of him to see a grand building, almost like an old castle, sitting in front of them. The bricks were pale and withered a sickly grayish color. The path they walked on eventually led to smoothed cobblestones, which gave off an even more antique look. The people walking around the campus were wearing similar uniform like his and Vanilles': A navy blue bottom with a white button down shirt and tie, and an optional sweater.

_Homogeneous._

"Holy sh—"

"C'mon!" Vanille grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the entrance. The door wasn't really anything fancy unlike the school's superficial appearance. It was just a glass door.

The noise inside the academy didn't get much quieter, but Hope couldn't help but admit to himself that he enjoyed the atmosphere of routine again. Being in school and being a student and following routine. He liked that.

Hope pulled out folded paper from his pocket.

Locker 45, Class 1-2. He looked at the second folded paper, assumed it was his schedule, and slipped it back into his pocket. He turned towards Vanille, "What's your locker number?"

"Umm…" She searched for the paper inside her bag, and pulled out a small sheet of white paper. "Locker 132, Class 2-3. Yours?"

"45, Class 1-2."

She laughed. He blinked. "What?"

She jabbed a finger at his chest. "You're a _freshman._" Vanille giggled again.

Hope scoffed, "Are you embarrassed hanging around me, Ms. Vanille?"

"Are _you _embarrassed hanging around _me?_" She countered with forged scorn.

"Heh, you bet I am." She gasped. "I mean, you're great…yay…?" The last few words were so weak and pathetic, that Vanille just shook her head and smiled.

_Flippant._

"Well, I'm going to check out my classes, which pretty much what everyone's doing now. Find the route, and get to class. Now, shoo! You need to find where your classes are so you won't get lost when classes actually start." She turned around, but not before giving Hope a mischievous grin, adding freshman, and walked off like her happy usual self.

He sighed, pulled out the folded paper he assumed was his schedule, unfolded the assumed schedule, and wanted to shoot himself right afterwards for assuming at all.

He didn't bring the damn schedule.

He brought the fucking Summer Reading List.

_Idiot._

**It's not my best...I haven't been writing in a while, but...review and let me know what you think. Too short? Too much dialouge? Undescriptive? :| Anything to help improve. :) Thanks for reading! :D**


	2. Day 1: Part 2

**THANK YOU SO MUCH TO MY TWO REVIEWERS! (^_^) **

**Gaminex, thank you for the lengthy review. I really appreciate those, and I'll see what I can do about the profanity. But there isn't any here, I promise ya that. :D**

**coca-cola1, thank you for your review too! I was thinking it could be HopexVanille, but I'm still not sure since the other (I love how I'm calling them this) "potentional significant others" haven't made an appearance yet. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own ANY Final Fantasy Characters of ANY game. NOT ONE. **

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Of all the places little baby chocobos like hiding in, Sahz Katzroy's hair seems to be the best place to conceal itself. It was like a mobile home with no doors and more windows, allowing the bird to reveal itself anytime it wants to. His hair was a place of warmth as well as comfort, saving Sahz money from buying a cage for the bird.

He just wondered what he'd do when it gets bigger.

Sell it? Dahj would never let that happen. Set it free? The chances of survival for domesticated chocobos are extremely thin. Sahz scratched the back of his neck and let the fan's air hit his face.

He didn't have to think about this now. The chocobo wouldn't grow _that_ fast.

"Um, excuse me?"

Sahz whipped his head around, laying eyes on a sheepish looking boy with silverish-looking hair. The man smiled at the boy, who seemed a bit less awkward now. And a bit more familiar. "Yes?"

The boy became awkward again. "Well, I left my schedule at home…" he fiddled with his fingers, not daring to look up. "I was wondering if the school would have a copy of it."

Sahz blinked at him, looked at the floor, and then looked at the boy while scratching his chin. He squinted. The boy made a face.

Silverish hair. Green eyes. Pale skin. Kind of short (but some would say average height). _Where have I seen you before? _

Sahz Katzroy straightened up, and crossed his arms impatiently. But he smiled nonetheless. "Actually we do, in the Admissions Office. I'll do ya the favor," he leaned down a little and whispered, "We're not really supposed to give students their schedules when they forget 'em."

The kid grinned, giving him a sharp nod. "Gotcha."

He led the boy into a separate room, where man no younger than twenty-eight was typing away at a computer. His hair seemed to defy-gravity, (which wasn't really new to Sahz anymore), and was dyed blond.

At least that's what Sahz heard. "Hey Strife, ya busy?"

'Strife' didn't look away from his computer screen. "Define 'busy'."

He was typing away again, and with curiosity taking over him, Sahz walked over to see just what it was that held his attention so diligently. When he laid eyes on the screen, he sent the boy an annoyed look, and looked at the man again.

"Cloud, what the hell are you doin'?"

"Playin' 'The Hacker'," he replied nonchalantly, "what are you doing?"

Sahz crossed his arms. "Nothing, just decided to take a stroll down the park and visit my favorite Cloud." He replied sarcastically.

The young boy couldn't help but smile a little, but this 'Cloud' character just scoffed. "Ha-ha, very funny." He grabbed the mouse and clicked the 'X' button. He turned to see Sahz. "Anything ya need, boss?"

"Actually, I need a schedule for this young man." He gestured to the teen standing in front of Cloud's desk.

Cloud followed the hand to see a young boy, mostly likely a freshman (and oddly familiar at that), standing awkwardly in front of them. He let his eyes wander over the boy, finally letting his brilliant blue eyes rest onto his emerald green ones. "Name and homeroom, kid."

He didn't hesitate. "Hope Estheim, Class 1-2."

The two older men stopped half-way through their actions, glancing nervously at each other, then at Hope, then at each other, then at Hope again. Sahz spoke first.

"You're Hope Estheim?" The boy hesitated a bit before nodding his head, not knowing what to expect. But Sahz just had a goofy smile on his face, as if he were stupid for not realizing something that he should have. "Man, I knew I saw you somewhere! You're actually supposed to be—"

"In junior year," Cloud interrupted, earning Hope's attention, "But you wanted to take freshman year instead and just skip sophomore year, right?"

Cloud didn't seem excited, or like he was going to treat him any different because of his reputation, and Hope was silently grateful for that. "Y-yeah. I figured that I should at least start off like everyone else. Besides, it'd be pretty weird if I go into a year where everyone practically knows each other already."

Cloud nodded, typing something into his computer and hitting the enter button by the time Hope finished talking. "Well, you made a good choice, kid." He looked at his keyboard thoughtfully. "There's also another one, right, Katzroy?"

Sahz nodded. "That's right, Maqui's here too."

"Maqui Mancini's here?" Hope asked, gaining the undivided attention of the two men. When they both nodded, Hope smiled. "Awesome! He's taking freshman year first too, right?"

Cloud nodded, spinning his chair around and taking a paper that came out of the printer, bringing it over to his desk. He scanned the paper before giving it to Hope. "It seems that you and Maqui have a few classes together." Hope looked at his schedule and couldn't stop smiling. "You okay, kid?"

He looked up, "I'm fine. I'm just…now I have another good friend with me here. And that just makes me really happy."

Sahz gripped Cloud's shoulder. "Aw, wouldja look at that?" He made his way up to Hope and ruffled his hair, "The smiles a friend can put on your face," he smiled, "Priceless, eh?"

Hope laughed a little, "Yeah."

"Take care of 'em, ya hear?" Cloud spoke up. Hope looked at him, noticing his solemn expression. "These friends and the ones you'll make. Take care of 'em. I'm sure the ones you'll meet are all keepers." He smiled at him, as if the sudden gloom that took over him was never there, and then cocked his head to the clock. "You should start checking where your classes are, you've got about thirty-five minutes left."

At this, Hope quickly glanced at the clock, then at the two men. "I'll see ya around?"

Cloud shrugged. "Doesn't seem like we have much of a choice now, do we?"

Taking this as a yes, Hope felt his cheekbones rise up again, and he quickly walked down the hall with his schedule in hand. He had to make the most out of these thirty-five and counting minutes.

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**...sometimes I wonder if it was a good thing to add Cloud in it. Would that make it a cross-over? It IS Final Fantasy technically. **

**Eh.**

**What do YOU think? Is Cloud out of character? How was Sahz? How do you think it's going so far? :? (If possible, please point out any mistakes I have, or if I have any characters wrong in anyway). **

**Well, thank you for reading! Be kind to review, please! (^_^)**


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